Last July, while attending an energy conservation training program, Redwood Middle School art teacher Sharon Campbell witnessed something that would change her views on energy conservation forever.

Now, she and her students are on a campaign to change the way Napa County residents use energy by providing free energy-saving bulbs to every household in the valley.

Campbell's mission began during the sweltering heat wave of July 2006.

She was at the Edison power switching station in Los Angeles for energy conservation training when the seemingly impossible happened: She watched as California ran out of power. She watched as engineers frantically called Washington, Nevada and Colorado begging to buy extra watts. When that wasn't enough, she watched supervisors determine which areas had the fewest hospitals and schools and reluctantly make the decision to black out entire communities.

"Up until that day," said Campbell, "I had believed when we had blackouts, something had broken, would be replaced, and the electricity would continue flowing." On that hot day in Southern California, she said, "the only thing chilled in that room was me when I realized California was out of electricity."

After 4 p.m. when power was beginning to be restored, Campbell asked why California didn't just build more power plants. She was told that even if construction started today, it would be 10 years before the first watt of energy would be produced.

She then learned that if every household in California exchanged just one old, incandescent bulb for one CFB Compact Florescent bulb, it would save enough energy each year to avoid blackouts.

At that moment, Campbell pledged to provide every household in the Napa Valley with its first energy-saving bulb. Last year, for Back to School night, she personally bought every CFB bulb in town -- around 400 -- and asked her students to pass them out to parents. Every visitor to her classroom received a bulb. That, said Campbell, "was the start of our campaign."

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Then, Sept. 22, 2007, two Napa middle school students, Thomas Gumina and Randall Rhodes, spoke at the National Green Construction Convention in San Francisco explaining their class's energy conservation efforts. After approaching several venders asking for light bulb donations, Sylvania agreed to donate 3,000 bulbs for Campbell's class to distribute to Napa homes.

It took students less than three days to get names, addresses and telephone numbers for 2,600 friends, family members and neighbors who wanted an energy-saving bulb.

"With the rising cost of energy, who would turn down a $2- or $3-a-month saving just for changing your porch light for free, no strings attached, except the promise that you would use the bulb?" asked Campbell.

In an effort to provide bulbs to members of the community who might not otherwise be able to afford them, the leftover bulbs are wrapped and donated to the Napa Valley Food Bank to be distributed with holiday food -- 300 were given this Thanksgiving and 300 will be donated at Christmas.

Next year, Campbell hopes to expand the program to the entire county. "Last year, the school; this year, the city; next year, the whole Napa Valley," she said.

And she has confidence that her students can make that happen. This year, four students delivered more than 200 bulbs each. "One student, Blake, last year convinced his father to replace all the lighting fixtures in his new business with more efficient heating and lighting," she said.

Redwood student Hailey Galloway said it makes her "feel good to be helping other people."

Emmarose Duarte, who is also in Campbell's class, said she is not only helping the environment now, she is encouraging people to continue similar efforts in the future. "You make people want to help," she said. "I like the feeling of it. You actually made a difference. It may not be a big difference, but it's helping."

Campbell said her hope is that the class will change the community's attitude about energy use. "It will be very difficult to change the attitudes of our adult population about energy use, even global warming and pollution," she said, "but our students are young, observant and savvy about the world they will soon inherit. In a handful of years, they will be our voters, lawmakers and leaders. Education and the knowledge that they individually can make a difference, though only 12- and 13-year-olds, in my mind will help build reflective, empowered citizens."

Over the years, Campbell has won several large grants from British Petroleum and the Napa Foundation. She has been invited to London to take part in the Global Educators Conference two years in a row and to present at energy conservation conferences. She has also received congressional citations.

"But the best ever was the call from George Lucas," she said. Lucas Productions recently filmed the classroom, Redwood Middle School and Napa Valley Unified School District Superintendent John Glaser for a documentary about their energy conservation efforts.

"All this for just doing the right thing," said Campbell.